Al cuore non si comanda

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Perhaps we don't fully recover from our first loves. Perhaps, in the extravagance of youth, we give away our devotions easily and all but arbitrarily, on the mistaken assumption that we'll always have more to give.

Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World (1990)

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Whoever it is you fall in love with for the first time, not just love but be in love with, is the one who will always make you angry, the one you can't be logical about. It may be that you are settled in another place, it may be that you are happy, but the one who took your heart wields final power.

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion (1987)

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In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter—bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895)

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Ich könnte das beste, glücklichste Leben führen, wenn ich nicht ein Tor wäre.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774)